Mercedes Electric City Buses Will Rule Europe Soon

• Daimler Buses plans to offer CO2-neutral city buses in Europe by 2030, and to launch the first intercity electric bus by 2025.

• The bus maker plans to offer hydrogen fuel cells as a range extender on its battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro buses, 600 of which have already been produced.

• Hydrogen is increasingly seen as a promising technology for heavy trucks along highway routes from ports to warehouses, with hydrogen infrastructure along busy routes in Europe.

Mercedes-Benz is certainly on a roll with several electric passenger models arriving on the market this year.

But what about models meant to carry over a hundred passengers?

Daimler's bus division has two solutions for that in the future: Electric and hydrogen powertrains. The bus maker rolled out its zero-emission strategy during the Daimler Buses eMobility Days in Stuttgart, revealing plans to offer only CO2-neutral city buses on its home continent by the year 2030.

Daimler sees a more diverse future in Europe when it comes to its powertrains, with plans to equip its current electric city bus—the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro—with a hydrogen fuel cell starting in 2023, meant to act as a range extender. This means the battery-electric bus will be able to switch from an EV mode to its hydrogen fuel tank, which will still power its electric motor.

Daimler Buses has built some 600 eCitaro buses by this point, offering it in two body styles: Solo and articulated. The current generation of the eCitaro solo bus features a 588-kWh battery, giving it a range of 173 miles for the solo configuration, and a range of 138 miles for the accordion variety thanks to a 686-kWh battery. Of course, these ranges are calculated based on average working conditions, but when pressed into long-distance driving Daimler says that they will easily exceed 300 kilometers, or 186 miles.

"As a worldwide leading bus manufacturer, our ambition is clear: We want to make a contribution to contending climate change and be a driver of the change in transportation that is needed to achieve this," said Till Oberwörder, head of Daimler Buses. "To this end, we are pursuing a clear electrification strategy and putting buses with alternative drive technologies on the road in series production."